A game-by-game look at Dennis Maruk's 60-goal, 136-point season

Dennis Maruk was the first player in Capitals team history to reach the 60-goal and 100-point plateaus. He was fourth in the league in scoring, with the eighth highest point total ever in the NHL at the time, and was third in goals. He achieved the 11th 60-goal season in league history and became the first Cap to score a goal against all 20 NHL foes in the same season. He had three 90-point seasons in a Washington uniform.

Small but durable, he played all 80 games in three consecutive seasons (1980-83). Maruk played in 581 regular season NHL contests before he got into his first-ever Stanley Cup playoff game. Maruk made the most of his limited late-career playoff appearances, posting 14 goals and 36 points in 34 games.

During his record-setting season, Maruk scored his 100th point on Feb. 20, 1982 in the team’s 60th game of the season. Maruk netted his 60th goal of the campaign on Apr. 3, 1982 in the Caps’ penultimate game of the season. The milestone tally came in a 6-4 Washington win over the Leafs in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada. Vincent Tremblay was the Maple Leafs' goaltender that night.

“Dennis Maruk loved to score goals," remembers Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who played with and against Maruk in junior hockey. "He was very quick from spot to spot to spot, as quick as anybody. He loved to score, he had a desire to score and he paid the price by going to the net for a little guy. He was great at it. We had quite a rivalry growing up. To score 60 goals in the NHL is an incredible feat, and hats off to him.

“The thing that I remember is that he had great toughness for a little guy. And when I say toughness, he wasn’t going to beat you up but he was going to pay the price to get the goal. And he had quickness and a great release also on his shot."

Although Alex Ovechkin scored 65 goals in 2007-08 to break Maruk's long-standing franchise mark for goals in a season, Maruk still holds the team's single-season marks for assists (76) and points (136) in a season.

Just under 25 years ago (on July 5, 1983), the Caps dealt Maruk back from whence he came, to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for the Stars. second-round pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft.

Maruk went on to play 888 regular season NHL games over a 14-year career in the league. He finished up with 356 goals and 522 assists for 878 points. In just 343 games as a Capital, Mauk piled up 182 goals and 249 assists for 431 points. He is now remembered as one of the best small players of any era, along with one of his former Minnesota teammates and fellow ex-Cap Dino Ciccarelli.

“Ciccarelli is a good comparison," says Boudreau, "because they both paid the price for guys who weren’t overly big to go to the front on the net. I’d find some 30-goal scorer from today’s game that’s smaller to compare Dennis with. Taking nothing away from him because the most I ever got was 10, but in today’s game it is so hard to score because the players are so much bigger, faster and stronger. It’s hard to compare 60 goals now with 60 goals 26 years ago."

Here is a look at Maruk's game-by-game production during his record-setting season of 1981-82.